A true insider’s story of the backpacker murders from the detective who led the team that arrested Ivan Milat.

Milat – the serial killer who preyed on young hitchhikers. The backpackers – the innocent victims of a brutal murderer. Belanglo – a place that became synonymous with pure evil.

It was the biggest and most complex manhunt in Australian history, an investigation that gripped a nation. Behind the many false leads and dead ends, precious clues emerged that pointed to one man.

This is the story of how Ivan Milat was caught. Clive Small takes us inside the operation he led as his team painstakingly pieced together the evidence that put Milat behind bars. But questions remain. Did he act alone? Were there other victims? How much did his family know? And what of his great-nephew, who brutally killed a young man in 2010?

Chilling, forensic, compassionate – this is the definitive story that could only be told by someone at the centre of the police operation. It is also a powerful argument for the investigation of more than a hundred unsolved murders.